Just one last piece of gear

I don't think there is much that I enjoy more than being on the water. Paddling. I prefer going from place to place, covering miles, rather than, say, playing in a race or surfing but pretty much any paddling is better than pretty much anything else.

That said I am getting sick of moving my boat. It's a Romany so about 16 feet long. Which is short in the grand scheme of things I know. And it's a glass boat so it's probably a little lighter than a plastic boat of the same dimensions. But still, getting it on the car to get to the put in, taking it off, putting it back on, and taking it off one more time for a day of paddling is pretty tedious. Since I paddle mostly by myself (another story) it's also a touch uncomfortable. Essentially I take 54lbs, concentrate it into an area about 2 inches wide and, I dunno, 4 inches long and hang it on my shoulder. You know. And then it's just the unweildyness (<- made up word) of the damn thing. Take 8 feet of anything and put it in front and in back of you and of course you're going to bump a few things.

Generally I have really good equipment. Kokatat drysuit and PFD, Werner paddles, etc. Indeed, having good equipment is part of my nervous-on-the-water mantra (also another story). But for this, moving my boat around, I have basically me. Like I guess most sea paddlers I'm not exactly young, which means I'm probably moving further from being good equipment into more well loved equipment territory. And so I think I need an upgrade in the boat moving equipment department. 

I've looked around and can't really find anything that I like. There's the hullivator things, but they take up too much room on the roof of my car to be practical. Even if I did want one that really only solves half the problem. I'd have to get something like a set of wheels. But those look like a giant pain in the ass. First off I think I'd have to get the ones with the giant balloon wheels so I can get across a beach if need bet. Second, storing them would really annoying once I got to the water. Third I still have to tie the boat onto the wheels, which means straps and stuff, and I'm sort of sick of my straps too.

So, having scanned current market offerings, and on the off chance someone is reading this, here's basically what I think would do the job.

That's a gnome and I think a couple of them would be ideal for what I'm talking about. Maybe three. They're about 3 feet tall but are, according to some sources, 7 times stronger than a human (look it up). Which is awesome because they'd be really easy to store and could easily pick up my boat, maybe even if it was fully loaded. Now the one pictured is clearly prototypical. It's not wearing waterproof boots or anything, so that would have to be changed. I don't think it would need a dry or wet suit because, really, I just want help when I'm on land, so that would tend to keep cost of manufacture/whatever down. And possibly it could do other things besides tote my boat, like maybe take out the garbage or drive my kids to school or something.

Anyway, if you're in the paddle sport accessory biz, think about it. I'll convey any rights you'd like for my idea here. After all I'm not interested in money, I'm just interested in a better overall paddling experience.

Treat everyone like children

I'm on what seems to be a never ending quest to suck less as a paddler. That means I try to take a few classes each year. And in every class I try to learn one thing. So I was in a class in San Juans a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be a paddling in currents type class, but the big thing I learned ended up having nothing to do with that.

Another student and I were futzing about near the front of a pretty nice race. For some reason I looked to my right and watch as the other guys boat gets pushed to the left and he starts surfing right at me. Kinda quickly. Actually pretty fast. Alright, maybe not that fast, but at the time it seemed fast. So the etiquette of the circumstance (i.e. you're going to run someone over) is that you take the noble path and capsize. You know, so you stop. And don't break anyones ribs. So I'm watching this boat head right at me, quickly (yah, quickly. I'll settle on quickly), remarkably calm about the whole soon-to-need-an-airlift event unfolding waiting for the other guys chivalry to kick in and his boat to go upside down (as an aside, waiting for chivalry takes subjectively a very long time). Closer. Soon. Closer. No, really, soon. Closer. Soon. Please? Closer. Fuck, chivalry is dead. I capsize myself.

So I'm upside down. I just hung out for maybe, what, 18 minutes or so, waiting waiting for the other guys boat to run over me. That big clunk sound never comes though. Whatever, it's been, what, 18 minutes so I should probably roll up. I do my setup bit, start sweeping the paddle and clunk. I hit a boat. Not mine. Alright, let's try again. Clunk. Again. Clunk. Hmm. His boat must be on top of me or something. At this point though I've been a low oxygen environment for, what, 18 minutes or so, and I kinda need to breath a bit. Just to take the edge off. So I bailed.

It turns out that if I'm upside down in cold water for any length of time I get a little disoriented. Not terribly bad, but a little dizzy and it takes me a few seconds to get my bearings. So I'm swimming, a little out of it, and the other guys starts a rescue. Which is good. But he was being kind of polite about the whole thing. Me, being a little out of it, I don't help the way I normally do. Like he had ahold of my boat and I just stayed where I was instead of going to his boat. Finally he says, very nicely I thought, "Can you come to my boat?". Which I do. He does a few other things and starts handing me my bow so I can crawl along the deck lines and get back in. I'm not sure why, but I just sort of stared at the front of my boat until he asked, very nicely I thought, "Can you crawl along your deck lines?". Which I do. But by this point we're pretty far along in the race and here comes the coach. I won't bore you with the details, but in this race there is a real point of no return. And the coach knows this. So I'm in my boat, and I've started paying real attention to what's happening right now (as opposed to figuring out why I kept hitting the other guys boat) and realize my cockpit is entirely full. In a race. With, I dunno, 2 foot breaking waves. It was pretty rough. I announce that I can't paddle my boat full in these conditions. The coach apparently decides it's time to get seriously involved and starts giving orders. You! Go to the eddy. Rick! Get out of your boat. Come to my boat. Etc. Not very nicely I thought. But in about 45 seconds I'm back in my mostly empty boat, deck on, paddling for the eddy.

When someone swims they're no longer your friend, or partner, or fellow student, or anything like that. No, when someone swims they're your responsibility. Sort of like having a kid. Sometimes you take time to explain things, answer questions, you know. Sometimes though you're not. Don't run into the street for example. Orders first, explanation later. But in the moment there is no suggestion that now is the time to negotiate or you're going to be respectful.

And that's what I learned. Treat swimmers like kids running into the street. So if You happen to swim, and I happen to be the hero, don't be surprised if I treat you like a child. At least for a short while.

Second blog, first post

Some friends of mine have, for reasons that I don't understand, encouraged me to start a blog related to paddling. Here we go.

This is my second blog. The first one was programming related. Because that's what I do for a living, write software. I had to stop with that blog because I became non-self employed and I wasn't too sure being entirely frank was really a good idea. When I got back out on my own I just didn't have it in me to write about programming again. Oh well.

Right, so this blog is about paddling. Or what I think about paddling. Or what others think about paddling. Or something like that. I'm not sure this is gonna be a good idea after all.